On the last leg of our journey home from Madrid to Vigo last week, we flew on the recently created Iberia Express – supposedly the discount airline of Iberia. I had noticed on our outbound flight that they had boasted 97% punctuality for the whole of 2014, but it wasn’t until the return leg that I fully understood how they achieved this remarkable number…..

On boarding our flight in Madrid the captain announced that our flight time to Vigo would be 45 minutes – this was quickly followed by a further announcement that our take-off would be slightly delayed. Twenty minutes after our scheduled departure time we eventually took off, and our journey time was exactly 45 minutes, as the pilot had previously confirmed. Imagine my puzzlement therefore, when the stewardess announced that we had actually landed 10 minutes early, and that their record of 97% punctuality remained completely intact….. But how? Had we landed in a different time zone? Were we travelling in a flying machine built by H.G.Wells? Well, no actually. The simple truth is that the published schedule allocates 75 minutes for a 45 minute flight. A 66% margin for error……. Talk about massaging the numbers!

On the last leg of our journey home from Madrid to Vigo last week, we flew on the recently created Iberia Express – supposedly the discount airline of Iberia. I had noticed on our outbound flight that they had boasted 97% punctuality for the whole of 2014, but it wasn’t until the return leg that I fully understood how they achieved this remarkable number…..

On boarding our flight in Madrid the captain announced that our flight time to Vigo would be 45 minutes – this was quickly followed by a further announcement that our take-off would be slightly delayed. Twenty minutes after our scheduled departure time we eventually took off, and our journey time was exactly 45 minutes, as the pilot had previously confirmed. Imagine my puzzlement therefore, when the stewardess announced that we had actually landed 10 minutes early, and that their record of 97% punctuality remained completely intact….. But how? Had we landed in a different time zone? Were we travelling in a flying machine built by H.G.Wells? Well, no actually. The simple truth is that the published schedule allocates 75 minutes for a 45 minute flight. A 66% margin for error……. Talk about massaging the numbers!